Now in its eighth year of recognizing exceptional women in the dental industry, Dental Products Report is thrilled to introduce the Top 25 Women in Dentistry for 2017.

If you were to ask Jennifer Naylor what she does, her answer wouldn’t be simple because her day-to-day job is far from simple—but her passion and drive show in every task she completes and every team she manages. To her, managing within Hu-Friedy Manufacturing, LLC, where she’s worked for 15 years, means working to bring the industry together with the practitioner to help with the advancement of patient health by creating and providing innovative new products and education.

“I love working for a company that is passionate about providing high-quality products and education that improves the quality of care for practitioners and patients,” Naylor says of her work. “What motivates me the most is working with incredible colleagues and creating products and programs that hopefully make practitioners’ jobs more predictable and rewarding.”

Every day Naylor is presented with challenges within her work, specifically when it comes to the amount of information and products being presented to practitioners. This challenge motivates her to create programs and products that are truly beneficial and will make a difference for the dental office and in turn the patient.

“I am very proud of the product portfolio that has been created and planned, coupled with a strong educational component globally,” she says. “I love hearing from practitioners how much they have learned after attending our education programs.”

Throughout her career she has seen many changes within the dental industry, and the ones that impact her work directly have been substantial. She is happy to see heightened awareness of compliance and requirements around infection prevention as well as a major increase in access to education for both the patients and practitioners. She believes that this has allowed the industry and patients to become more knowledgeable on dental therapies, requirements and products. She has also observed the impact of digital access to education and information leading to faster adoption of procedures and products in the dental industry. While she’s proud to have seen these changes, she knows there are still hurdles for the industry and many of them come with the embrace of complete health instead of simply oral health.

“As the industry grows and changes, I hope to see increased access to high-level care for all patients in dental settings that are complying with the highest standards of infection prevention,” she says. “Oral health is so important to the overall systemic health that we should all have access to the same levels of education and treatment.”

As for personal challenges, Naylor is determined to face them head on and give her all in her whole life, from her profession to her personal life. She’s determined to innovate with the help of her mentors and her Hu-Friedy family.

“Innovation is never settling for the status quo and always looking for how to improve or leap frog your current product offerings or programs,” she says. “It is important to not get caught up in the day-to-day business and set aside thinking time and brainstorming time so that innovation stays in the forefront of your strategy.”